<p>This is sort of a cross between head scratching and mild venting. Today at the supermarket, there were several little girls and their moms outside with buckets, collecting money for their private dance academy (a national chain dance academy).<br>
It used to be that bucket drops were for charities and the needy. Then I started noticing bucket drops for school teams. Next it was elite teams, and now students at private dance academies. Does this mean I can send my private music students out with buckets to collect for “Doubleplay’s Music Academy”? How far can we take bucket drops?
BTW, this is a supermarket in a nice upscale deed restricted country club community; these kids are definitely not disadvantaged.
Does anyone else out there notice that bucket drops are now used by relatively well-off people to fund their children’s activities?</p>
<p>I have not seen this in our community. I’ve seen used book sales, cookie sales, candy and popcorn sales, magazine and gift wrap sales, etc… but it’s always a sale, not just outright begging. Wow. It reminds me a little bit of all the tip jars I see now on practically every counter.</p>
<p>Just think, if Pavarotti hadn’t used those buckets growing up in Italy, he’d have never discovered his gift. Nureyev in Russia, same thing. 
. Not.</p>
<p>I recall hearing two early radio interviews with Leonard Bernstein (conductor, writer of West Side Story, Kaddish and more). He came from an upper-middle-class background in Manhattan. All the great conductors until then had been European, not American. The radio interviewer wanted to position him as upscale as he possibly could, so announced his guest dramatically as “Leonard Beh-rehn-shtayn.” The musican’s immediate reply was “it’s Bern-steen and I’m from New York.”</p>
<p>The next interviewer tried to position him as if some kind of urchin street child from the slums of NYC, but Bernstein wasn’t that either. Asked how he got his first break, he said his mother heard on the radio one day that Stravinsky was in the city, “so she threw on her mink coat, took me by the hand from our home in the Upper West Side, put me in a taxi and brought me before him to play…”</p>
<p>Where the buckets might be good is to remind the students themselves that the community supports their studies, not just their parents. If they become developed musicians, we’ll all benefit from their work. I wouldn’t want it to be a required part of taking those lessons, however, since it obviously requires parents to oversee their kids’ safety on the streets and some parents, y’know, work for a living so that’s not quite fair. </p>
<p>Now that my own kids aren’t home any more, I’d be more likely to drop money into the bucket than when I was paying for their lessons at home.</p>
<p>And yet we are appalled by people who send their kids out to beg for money to buy food and shelter. Hmmm.</p>
<p>weenie - good point!</p>
<p>BTW, I am happy to say, I have never seen those buckets in our neighborhood.</p>
<p>Does it differ from all those gift-wrapping paper sales the public schools run as fund-raisers? The PTA ran them all the time. I resented them as a teacher because they were time-consuming and took away from teaching time. Little kids can’t handle the money; the parents threw it all in the envelope and expected school staff to sort it out. I found it irritating. A smart principal finally told us to just throw anything related to it into an envelope to send to the front office, and they untangled it all for us.</p>
<p>OP, I’m with you.
I’ve been hit up a number of times in the last few years, not just by bucket drops, but by fliers dropped off by kids (read parents) who want me to donate so that they can go to a sports camp/trip OVERSEAS. Their parents seem to think the child is “earning” the money by doing this, but I don’t see it. Secondarily, of course, is that these camps seem like a scam to me. If a kid wants to rake my lawn I’d be happy to contibute.</p>
<p>^I really dislike the bucket drives. In our town, the sports teams carry them out at intersections. There’s one main drag running north/south, and on a Saturday, doing errands, you can run into the same team four/five times.</p>
<p>I liked the fact that my kids’ main activity, band, raised money in non-begging ways. The music association held a fruit sale, which people in the community looked for (and no one felt compelled to support otherwise) plus we run a band festival, making money from people who show up voluntarily (basically, band parents from other towns), plus adbooks, entrance fees, etc. I sold “airgrams” for eight years, and was always amazed at how much money people would shell out for them.</p>
<p>Both fundraisers were a ton of work for kids and parents, but neither had any aspect of begging.</p>
<p>This has happened too many times to count. We receive a solicitation for a donation to help pay for a trip run by some non profit organization. The solicitor is a friend of one of my children. The trip is almost always oversees somewhere, involves some foreign language enrichment, some community service AND will of course be listed on this young person’s college resume. Usually the family of this young person would seem to fall in a higher income bracket that we do (and to my mind should just pay for the trip outright - if they can afford that waterfront mini mansion, which I surely cannot, please do not look at me to help pay for these things). Of course the young person usually goes on to attend some fabulously expensive college to boot.</p>
<p>My own children have participated in similar trips, loved them, felt they were worthwhile and enriching. GREAT! I refused to let them solicit donations from ANYONE. They could work for funds and we would address within our budget how trip payments would be handled. I fail to see the lesson learned or benefit gained by “begging”, particularly when the “beggar” lives a pretty cushy life.</p>
<p>I’ve seen Little League doing this door-to-door. I don’t like it either. It also only happens in neighborhoods where housing is concentrated, so the same people probably get hit up for everything. We can’t even get trick-or-treaters at our house. Bottle drives are different, imo, because people often don’t want to deal with their returnables and are often happy to get rid of them.</p>
<p>Whenever my kids are required to do any of those fund raising stuff. I just rather write them a check than for them to go to each house to “beg” for money. I don’t quite understand all the fund raising. If you need extra money for school, just raise the tuition. If you want to go abroad, then pay for it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against fund raising for charity. With everything I am saying here, I do find myselfs buying popcorns, wrapping papers whenever I see a little kid at my door. But it is only because I feel bad for them, not because I think it’s right. I think adults should stop making those kids do that. My kids hate it.</p>
<p>I have to say…while I think this “bucket drop” thing for private dance lessons is over the top…I would MUCH rather just donate a dollar than have to buy the JUNK they typically sell. I am NOT a fan of useless junk fundraisers.</p>
<p>I also hate fundraisers - both when my kids were supposed to do them (we didn’t - I always gave a lump sum - fully tax deductible!) and when I get continually hit up by others. I am a piano teacher, and each of my students expects me to buy something, and the things they’re selling usually cost more than I charge for the lesson! Of course I buy. I also do try to buy from every kid who comes to the door, but with a few exceptions. We do have a limit, so when we get too many kids coming with the same thing we say no. If the kid is selling for a group that my kid is already in (used to happen all the time with band) I don’t buy. And if it’s a raffle of any kind, I explain that we don’t gamble (which usually puts a confused look on their faces).</p>
<p>I do like legitimate fund-raisers - old fashioned bake sales and white elephant sales and car washes. But with the wrapping paper, jewelry sales, etc, I always feel like I’m giving more to the company than to the project, and I’m getting something overpriced that I don’t need in return.</p>
<p>I can ignore an outright request for money easier than I can a sales pitch by a little kid! I don’t usually give handouts to beggars either, but if they are doing something - even honking on a harmonica - I’ll reward the effort.</p>
<p>Seems like a dance club, like in the OP, could at least put on a little show while they’re begging! I’d donate for that!</p>
<p>Since I’m an empty-nester with a three-to-five-year plan to sell the house, I am trying to be a net exporter of goods. That means I don’t bring anything into the house unless it’s food, clothing, or some other necessity. I was at the gas station a few months ago and some charity (a worthy one, if I recall – yes, DARE) asked me to buy some crappy tchotchke. I declined but offered to give a contribution. They didn’t know what to do with me. They kept pushing their cr*p on me, and I kept refusing to take it. </p>
<p>It was a totally ugly vase. I’m so happy it’s not in my house.</p>
<p>I’m with oldfort & binx. I also hated it when my kids were required to do any fund raising. I always wrote them a check rather than have them go door-to-door “begging” for money. I do, however, give to most kids that come to the door selling things if they aren’t too expensive. I just can’t resist those cute little kids. And I too have seen a lot more bucket drops. Not a day goes by that I’m not accosted for funds while leaving my local supermarket.</p>
<p>Well, as Nancy Reagan says, Just Say No.</p>
<p>just got hit today coming out of the local Lowe’s…local little league football team raising money for a trip to Florida.</p>
<p>gave a buck.</p>
<p>How do you feel about grocery bagging?? That’s a popular activity around here, the kids bag you groceries, and you drop them a buck. My kids did it once, on the Wed before T’giving, and it was by far the most money they ever made at any fundraiser, of course they worked their little patooies off for about 5 hours that afternoon. I generally hate fundraisers, too, but I thought at least they worked for this one.</p>
<p>I have no problem with ANY kind of task- bagging, bussing tables, washing cars, dancing (although I did have the idea of asking the girls to do a little dance, but figured I’d be arrested).</p>
<p>When I was in high school, a friend and I were trying to raise money to go on an international music competition. We went to the mall, got the mall music store to move a piano out into the center of the mall, set a goldfish bowl on the piano, and put up a big poster that said “12 Hour Piano Playing Marathon!” Yes, we played for 12 hours, taking turns, and ended up with something like $500 (this was in the mid-70’s, so not bad). At least we DID something. And we were not accosting people personally, walking up to them with a bucket, asking “would you donate to Twinkletoes?” (I made that name up.) There’s something about that, that kind of wrankles me.</p>
<p>Binx, I teach piano too. I’m a huge sucker for Girl Scout Chocolate Mint Cookies. My sons can eat a whole box in one sitting. I must buy over a dozen boxes a year, but it’s worth it!! (The boy scout popcorn- sorry, I could do without, but I buy it anyway.)</p>
<p>Girl scount cookies I support. I also donate canned food to boy scounts. I dislike all the car washes around here, with HS girls in bikinis soliciting business on busy intersections.</p>